The Tyranny of Patriarchy in the Fight Against the Patriarchal Economy

Applications for stalls and proposals for workshops/meetings are flying in for this years Bristol anarchist bookfair. The bookfair collective will be meeting on 11 August, when hopefully we’ll be able to finalise the programme of workshops/meetings, amongst other issues.

As a taster of the likely programme, here’s some politics sent in with a proposal from The Laboratory of Futurefull Acts in collaboration with The Mad Hatters (from Bath), which we hope will get many of you thinking…

The Tyranny of Patriarchy in the Fight Against the Patriarchal Economy

Economic Crisis? If we stop for a minute and take a longer term view it is clear that aside from these ups and downs in the economy which alternately swell and deplete the masses of the unemployed while lining the pockets of the rich in the process, NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN THE LAST 400 YEARS. Women and children are still suffering under the tyranny of a system which takes the control over, and the use of, their bodies away from them and puts it firmly in the hands of men and institutions causing untold suffering and misery; and traps men inside the damaging dictates of masculinity for the sake of profit and power for the few. The conditioning and systems of patriarchy from which we all suffer, especially those of us of lower status, are as entrenched in ‘alternative cultures’ such as the anarchist one as much as they are in popular culture. We all carry it within ourselves and perpetuate it.

We define patriarchy as a social hierarchy, in which men have higher status and more privilege than women and children ( class and colour must not be forgotten). This hierarchy of economic patriarchy operates through the status interaction ( ALL interactions) between people and groups with the internalised behaviour patterns appropriate to their rank and roles in this system. These they act out unthinkingly, generation after generation in the home, the street, the school, the workplace, governmentaly and across borders. This social policing of self and others in this destructive manner leads to social inequality and mass psychological damage in children, men and women and creates a culture of disempowerment and fear which upholds the control of the ruling classes.

We are offering a workshop which aims to create a space in which women, men and children can come together with the objective of trying to find ways to begin to practically and personally deconstruct and heal the problems of patriarchy in our own lives and networks. We believe that without this position of integrity we have no hope of confronting or changing social injustice on a wider scale.
Come and join us. Feel free to step outside if you want to.